Topflight archaeologists have unearthed a 35,000-year-old figurine carved out of mammoth ivory by prehistoric Germans, depicting a woman with enormous breasts. The find is thought to be the oldest known example of 3D pornography in the world.
Prehistoric Hohle Fels statuette depicting a large breasted lady Early German 3D …

"In place of a realistic head it has a knob.."

You do realise I'm going to have nightmares about that now.

Anyhow, is there any evidence that this find is pornographic (designed purely to enflame sexual desire) as opposed to being an object of worship, fertility symbol etc etc or is it just Friday when a journo's mind turns to the finer things in life?

@@NSFW please (x2)

@ "@@NSFW please (x2)"

interesting religious angle?

The comment about neocons made me think... I've heard fundamentalists explain away pesky things like fossil evidence as 'god did it' - i.e., it was all just planted to f*ck with us. But surely a fundamentalist god isn't going to go around planting jubtastic idols like this?

@nsfw ac: dude, it might have been pornographic 40,000 years ago... today's standards are a bit different...

Confirmed....

@Graham T re. The boffins also found a dildo

"The prehistoric "tool" was reassembled from 14 fragments of siltstone"

I bet it was a hand-held sharpening stone used to put a point back on a deer antler plough or something useful like that, you know, those essential to daily life things that were oh so common and vital in those days.

A soon as a modern, beardy, sex-starved archaeologist sees the thing, it get's incorporated into his fantasies and becomes a broken dildo, sheesh. Note the additional information in the article..."it was also at times used for knapping flints"....I rest my case.

Perhaps our view is a bit skewed

And when this was created they didn't have a sense of "porno-cism" or "erotocism" and just thought it was a beautiful object to their eyes. Hopefully they weren't as warped as people seem to have gotten since then.

Would.

@@ "@@NSFW please (x2)" [x2]

(Hey figured I would keep the @@@'s alive :) )

"This would have allowed it to be worn concealed beneath the owner's primitive jerkin or hide garment, or alternatively stashed securely somewhere in the residential cave, perhaps to be brought out from time to time for private artistic contemplation."

I highlight this section:

"or alternatively stashed securely somewhere in the residential cave"

*twitch*

Umm yeahhhhhhh lets not go into what came to mind when I read that section. . .

Sex and religion

These idols were pretty common back then, it's a common tie between early religion and sexuality. The two key common factors between all Venus figurines (that's what they're called) are large breasts and wide hips, signs of fertility and good breeding. Most anthropologists believe that these idols were carried or owned by members of that culture as a sort of 'good luck charm' -- remember, in those times, it was not exactly uncommon for either woman and/or child to die during childbirth!

@AC 13:42

"Anyhow, is there any evidence that this find is pornographic (designed purely to enflame sexual desire) as opposed to being an object of worship, fertility symbol etc etc or is it just Friday when a journo's mind turns to the finer things in life?"

The later. The concept of nudity==porn is fairly modern. It's a fertility symbol. But if all the rest of y'all really enjoy the 14yo boy locker room humor, don't let me get in your way.

Long Cold Winters

Big hipped, big breasted, rotund women were and are still preferred where long cold winters prevail. I would guess a fat, possibly pregnant woman would have been prized as a symbol of a good hunting/gathering season and the promise of being able to last out the winter. Hypotrophic, androgonous boy/girls with recessed testicles where their ovaries should be are the product of urban culture.

@Pablo

It's not surprising that it's headless. Plenty of ancient European myths state that to look on the face of a god or goddess was a quick way to die. Robert Graves discusses this facet of mythology in his book, _The White Goddess._

agriculture

The more I look at it, the more it doesn't look like anything except a guy carrying a huge turnip or parsnip. It's obviously an agricultural magazine report on someone's prize tuber. Pornography? Bullshit!